"The Pelicot Case 2.0"

Horror Husband Confessed to His Sister

The 39-year-old met a gruesome death on this waterbed (top right)—her husband is in custody.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/zVg, adobestock)

In the case of the series of rapes in Marchtrenk (Upper Austria), the statement from the sister of the alleged main perpetrator is now available. The suspect cold-bloodedly brags about how he sold his wife (39) for 500 euros per rape and then killed her.

Laughing, even a little proud, he ran after his youngest sister that day—two days after his wife had met a miserable end. Let’s call the youngest sister of the detained murder suspect “Hanna.” She offered her condolences to him at their mother’s apartment, then just wanted to leave—and she did. What she didn’t know at the time was what the 51-year-old then told her without being asked.

Excerpt from the police report: 
“He said that … (The editors have omitted all names) died during sex and that he killed her. I asked how that was possible, and he told me that he had ‘really’ gone at it with her, … and … gone all out. He said it had been just like always.”

As reported, the Upper Austrian man (51) was not arrested immediately after his wife’s death. No one knew at the time that—the district attorney’s office calls the case “Pelicot 2.0”—it had been a full-fledged series of rapes. The husband, a truck driver, is alleged to have plied the 39-year-old with vast amounts of alcohol, drugged her, and then sold her. “Strangers were constantly coming and going at the couple’s home, ” the youngest of the five siblings stated in her testimony. “He showed me lewd photos of … on his cell phone and told me that … would bring in 500 euros per … That’s how they financed their life together. I can’t say whether … did it voluntarily.”

One of those “clients,” who is alleged to have played a brutal leading role in the series of rapes, is also 51 years old. The two men arranged the rapes like business appointments—documented in countless chat logs that are the epitome of human cruelty. Here, a woman was referred to as “dead meat” and as a “little dirty (...)”. The husband particularly enjoyed listening to his wife’s screams of agony from the next room.

Excerpt from the chats: 
“I’m going to get her really drunk. Then you can take her hard again. The way she was whining the other day was awesome.”

The Medusa Network

“Medusa” is a Europol project targeting online networks of men who drug their partners and then sexually abuse them. Investigations by German female journalists have already led to convictions in Austria. Austria has been participating in the Europol operation since August. After five months, 158 victims had already been identified. The actual number is higher. The current case didn’t come to light. “Without social media and the ability to communicate anonymously through it, this certainly wouldn’t exist on this scale,” said Petra Huber-Lintner of the Federal Criminal Police Office.

Two men are in custody, but the investigation is far from over. In fact, additional suspects are emerging in the chat logs. What remains is the mother of a 16-year-old daughter who is now dead. She is said to have suffered such severe internal injuries that there are no words to describe them.

The last words of the main suspect’s sister: “But I told him that if it were confirmed that he… had killed her—which I personally believe—he would be the absolute worst person in my eyes.”